Being Human with the cast of…Being Human

With the premiere of Being Human season two on Syfy January 16th, SciFi4Me already had a chance to speak to the shows’ producers, we also got to speak with the cast. Sam Huntington (Josh), Sam Witwer (Aidan) and Meaghan Rath (Sally) took part in a press conference call. Dustin Adair and Molly Montgomery of “Reviews for Humans” (Like us on Facebook here) sat in on the call. The actors really love to cut it up; here is some of the material from the very long, and very sarcastic conversation.

With the first season behind them the cast discussed what it was like getting to work on the second season. Huntington said, “…I personally expected it to feel a lot like just one giant bout of déjà vu and to be honest, like it really felt as though we never had the hiatus.”

Witwer added to the sentiments, “I guess you know you go away, we were so exhausted after the first season…and when we got back I hadn’t expected to be as happy to see everyone as I was, the crew and all the directors and everyone that kind of carried me through the season.”

Meaghan Rath said, “…script-wise, it was a lot easier to just fall back into it this year because there was no establishing who our characters were and what our circumstances were. We just jumped right into it.”

When asked how season two felt different from season one, Witwer responded, “…these people are in trouble and we’re going to see a lot of that trouble this year. We’re going to see why they need so badly to have a sanctuary because things get a little bit darker this year.” They talked a lot about this, that no matter how far apart the characters seem to grow, the house setting will be there to bring them all back together. They even discussed how the hospital will be a continued setting for the group as well. I guess that means, no matter how crazy things get, they aren’t quitting their day jobs in an attempt to keep their humanity.

When asked about the challenges of maintaining their humanity when playing the dark parts, Rath said “What makes the show different is that we’re not playing into the supernatural stereotypes, we are trying to play these as regular people.”

Witwer added to that by saying, “It’s all about the characters reactions and you know I mean these three characters are the eyes through which the audience watches the show. So we’re trying to keep our reactions to all this giant supernatural stuff very grounded…at first you’ll see our characters react with horror…and as time goes on you might see them kind of get used to it and that hopefully will be a very sad thing to watch.”

The cast really got into talking about how much they’ve grown to trust each other. They really have a bond with one another, Witwer stated, “…this year the three characters they get split up a bit and they go off on their own little journeys and for us that just made us appreciate every time that we had a scene together.” He also said that all three of them share at least one scene per episode, but his favorite coming up is one in which they all share the entire episode.

Huntington said of sharing scenes with his cast, “We have so much trust and faith in one another and I just know, like we just know when we’re in a scene with one another, it’s going to work and there’s going to be that shorthand and it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be loose and it’s going to be natural.” Witwer added, “…it’s like wow, look at all the stuff that they’re bringing that I frankly don’t know how to do. I love watching them and then stealing from them what I can.”

The gang also gets to share screen time with Kristen Hager who plays Nora and Sam Witwer let us know that all feel very bonded to her as well. If you like Nora get ready to have her become more of a core character to the show this season.

When asked about their favorite episode of the season, the group couldn’t really comment. They just said there are huge moments and Sam Witwer joked, “…I’m still shocked. I’m in a state of deep shock even right now.”

Speaking about the struggle this season between the roommates, Witwer said, “We will be seeing tension between the three in ways that we didn’t see in the first season, things get pretty serious…”. The cast felt really pushed this season as actors and as people, Huntington said, “…a lot of the stuff that I was given to perform, I really felt like my range broadened…and you learn kind of a lot of who you are as an actor and it’s been a joy. And I’ve been able to experience it with these guys who are like my besties.”

Sam Witwer got a chance to talk about what is in store for Aidan, “…we’re going to see a worse version of him, we’re going to see some of his old character traits…We’re going to learn first hand why everyone seems to be afraid of this guy…you know even in the first season Bishop gave him a wide berth and Marcus was wary of him…this really dangerous guy… and this year we start learning why.”

Talking about Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse), who will be playing the daughter of the feared vampire leader “Mother”, Witwer let us know that her character represents a piece of his past, a vampire he used to be but isn’t necessarily anymore. He compared it to meeting an old high school friend, you may have been buddies back in the day but people grow and change and how do you handle that.

We’ve reached the moment Dustin and I got to ask our questions and we took the opportunity to play around a little with the group, they had a great sense of humor. Dustin asked, “We know that in casting Aidan was supposed to be like the super sexy vampire and Josh was supposed to be the comic relief. How do you guys deal with the fact that Josh is totally sexier than Aidan?” And the gang burst into laughter and to be honest Dustin and I didn’t find it funny at all because we know it’s true. Josh is totes sexier than Aidan. Huntington said, “Oh God, it’s hard for me. I can tell you right now that will be the one-you are the one person who feels that way and I think you should come over tonight for dinner.” Witwer jabbed, “See now my thing is this, they had a lot of hopes for the Aidan character and only one or two of the 15 have they actually achieved having hired me…”

I then stepped in and asked why vampires are such messy eaters. Sam Witwer said he’s asked the same question. He told us, “I have actually on a few occasions been able to clean it up like you know they wanted to have blood all over the place, I’m like okay guys, he has been doing this for 200 years, he’s better at it than you guys are leading on.” Dustin and I, then had to let the next question in.

They went on to ask about Sally missing her door and the consequences of that. Meaghan Rath shared, “She’s acquired these new powers of being able to very briefly touch things which was a result of missing the door and she meets some new supernatural beings that kind of introduce her to different powers and one being possession which takes her down a very dark path, because it is very addictive.” That means we’ll be getting to see Sally in some different outfits this season because as Rath put it, “…this possession door that Sally’s opened has really allowed me to change it up a little bit which has been nice.”

Lastly, they discussed the BBC version versus the Syfy. The actors did not watch the BBC version before they started the first season, but they have since watched some episodes. Witwer let us know that the writers have not watched the BBC episodes. He said, “There is a little bit of cross over here and there in terms of things happening sometimes in similar ways. But it’s really coincidental considering our writers didn’t even know…” All of that makes sense, considering the show is created in the same vein, but it’s good to know there is effort put into making the story and the performances different from the original counterpart.

The season premier is Monday night, January 16th at 9/8pm central on the Syfy Channel. If you haven’t caught up, they will be showing the first season all day.

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Molly Montgomery

Molly Montgomery was introduced to genre film by her dad as a kid -- if it was "Forbidden Planet" or Tod Browning's "Freaks", she can't remember which was first. She began her love affair with Vampires at age 11, and at age 12 she stopped sunbathing. A background in theater, filmmaking and sitting on her tush makes her a fairly knowledgeable nerd.